Students Tutuoring Other Students During Class

[MnMomtoboys]

At 1 of my son's school some of the teachers would have this. Nothing offical but they would have the desks in groups of 4 or 5. There was always 1 kid in the group that excelled. During group work time they would helps the others when the teacher was busy with another group. This has always worked very well with the kids and I don't know anyone that had a problem with it.

At both of our schools they had buddies. Each grade was paired up with an older class and they would work on a different subject every week.

 

[sparklynails23]

I think the kids receiving tutoring at our school are the ones having significant learning issues. As I said, I would be fine with this as an after school activity and can see where it would be an opportunity for personal growth, but during school, I would rather that my child learn academics. If he's done with his assignment, give him advanced work. You know what I mean?

Now, my 8th grader's class does buddy up with a 1st grade class. I think that's a nice idea, but they don't really do academics.

 

[JessicaR]

I think the kids receiving tutoring at our school are the ones having significant learning issues. As I said, I would be fine with this as an after school activity and can see where it would be an opportunity for personal growth, but during school, I would rather that my child learn academics. If he's done with his assignment, give him advanced work. You know what I mean?Now, my 8th grader's class does buddy up with a 1st grade class. I think that's a nice idea, but they don't really do academics.

I do know what you mean and if thats the case move him on up!

My kids did and still do the underclass programs like reading with the younger kids.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Peer tutoring is a well known strategy. When you have to teach something, you learn it better. Research has shown the children learn best when they are active participants. If done correclty, this can greatly benefit both students. If it is done correctly. As others have said, in no way should this ever replace the teacher teaching. But this would be a great thing for when a teacher is working with small groups. Peer tutoring also does not need to be the same grade. An older student can tutor a younger student in a subject that they are having trouble with and it will have the same effect.

 

[Agri]

I think the kids receiving tutoring at our school are the ones having significant learning issues. As I said, I would be fine with this as an after school activity and can see where it would be an opportunity for personal growth, but during school, I would rather that my child learn academics. If he's done with his assignment, give him advanced work. You know what I mean?

No, I honestly don't. Or rather, I do. Its what my dad wanted for me. As I've mentioned in other posts, I ended up doing so much extra work that smart person that I am, I was burnt-out on school by the time college came around and I still have yet to get my degree.

I ended up being so far ahead of my peers academically, I was alienated as a child. I would end up doing advanced work, but since I was still going through the grades, it did not give me an advantage over my peers. Sure, I knew more than they did, but I still had to do the same work they did - I just finished it sooner and had even more free time. Or time to be incredibly bored as by the beginning of 3rd grade I had read all the books that interested me in the school library.

As someone who has worked with kids in a classroom, I would not give more advanced work for the similar reasons. The child has done what I have asked of them, I'm not going to go "Oh good, you finished this - here's more work that is harder than that for you to do to reward your achievement." Nope. I'm going to go "Good job, now read quietly at your desk." Or some other form of reward. It's ridiculous to tell a kid that because he finished his work he has to do more advanced work. After awhile, he'll just dawdle on his assignment so he doesn't have to do more work than his peers.

My parents (both teachers) hated the honors classes I had in middle school because they worked on that basic principle. Just mix the kids because it doesn't matter - the gifted kids are smarter, so just give them more work. Great way to burnout kids. Kids who aren't stupid and know that if they just work more slowly and wait to turn their paper in, they won't have to do more work.

It's not like by tutoring he wouldn't be doing work. He'd be explaining the work to his peers. It wouldn't be *book* learning, but he would still be learning valuable lessons that would prepare him for the real world, which is what most parents expect school to do.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I had a student in a regular English class once who shouldn't have been in regular classes, but his parents would not allow any other placement. He was a sweet kid and had okay social skills, but not the ability for the learning involved even in low regular classes.

He was in a small class of about 14 kids, kids he had grown up with. When the class wrote essays, I would let them work together and talk about their essays so long as each student wrote his/her own essay. I did all the critiquing and supervised the process, but for some kids it was good to be able to talk through their thoughts before committing them to an outline. Well, every essay I was AMAZED at my students. They round robined this low student so that he sat with different ones. And they talked him through those essays. The essays were undeniably his, but each of his class mates had some small part in talking him through figuring out what he would write.

He even managed to do credible work - his OWN work - on the final, toughest essay, a critical writing essay over a topic from Hamlet.

Those students learned everything I had to teach them about literature and essay writing, but they had learned or knew something much more important about how to help another human being and do it in a graceful, appropriate way. I am still in awe of them.

I had a student I used to force to tutor other students. I feel safe in saying he probably had severe ADHD. He was also from a family who might have been in an illegal profession and he had never been tested for anything, nor would his family allow this testing. The best thing I could do for him to get him to learn was to make him tutor Honors students. The Honors students knew (probably better than me) that he had a Wile E. Coyote Supergenius type IQ, so they didn't mind being tutored by him. I knew that the only way to make him settle down and learn something, anything, was to force him to be responsible for teaching someone else. The Honors students got a lot out of his tutoring - he had a distinctly different skew on things - and he managed to pass regular English.

 

[MushyMushy]

I think the kids receiving tutoring at our school are the ones having significant learning issues. As I said, I would be fine with this as an after school activity and can see where it would be an opportunity for personal growth, but during school, I would rather that my child learn academics. If he's done with his assignment, give him advanced work. You know what I mean?

Now, my 8th grader's class does buddy up with a 1st grade class. I think that's a nice idea, but they don't really do academics.

What do you think "academics" are?

 

[MM27]

Forget just peer tutoring, I've had kids teach the whole class before. One of the girls in my class this year has asked if she could do it one day for a math lesson and I told her that would be fine, but she needs to prepare the same way I do. She stays after school with me and is building an interactive lesson for the Smartboard. She's a very bright girl and she loves this kind of thing. I can guarantee you that she is learning a lot just by all the prep she is doing for her lesson. Sometimes kids that just don't get it when the teacher is teaching something, suddenly have that ah-ha moment when it comes from one of their peers.

 

[sparklynails23]

@Mushy: They take the kids to Mass (Catholic school) and eat lunch with them. They make a craft for them at the end of the year. They might help with an Art project, but they might not.

As for the peer tutoring, it's just not for my son. He needs more academic challenges, and doesn't see them as a punishment.

 

[graciejane]

Our school system has done peer tutoring for years, and has recently added peer mentoring. I can say from personal experience that it can be exptremely beneficial. My youngest has learned by having a someone his age explain things in a different way then the teacher and in turn he has been mentoring (highly supervised) 5th graders who are struggling with issue in school just like he had. I am sure there can be problems, but thankfully we have only seen the upside of these programs.

 

[disykat]

Peer tutoring is a well known strategy. When you have to teach something, you learn it better. Research has shown the children learn best when they are active participants. If done correclty, this can greatly benefit both students. If it is done correctly. As others have said, in no way should this ever replace the teacher teaching. But this would be a great thing for when a teacher is working with small groups. Peer tutoring also does not need to be the same grade. An older student can tutor a younger student in a subject that they are having trouble with and it will have the same effect.

I was "chosen" to tutor fourth graders in multiplication when I was a 6th grader. I was a responsible kid who did well in school, but did NOT have my multiplication tables memorized. It was definitely a strategic move on the teacher's part.

 

[Mrs. Darcy]

This is probably unusual but when I was taking physics in high school, one other student and myself were doing the poorest. During an exam, the kid was sitting next to me and whispered if I knew the formula for whatever problem he was working on. OMG I was scared to answer, but I whispered that I think it's whatever. The teacher saw what was going on and he turned away from us. So we quietly helped each other through the test, him explaining things to me from what he understood and I did the same. We were basically tutoring each other throughout the exam. He really helped me understand a few things and I was able to make clear to him what he didn't understand that I did. Neither of us got a great score, but we both passed. Later on, the teacher said he didn't want to interfere because even though it was an exam, it was a peer to peer teaching/learning experience.

 

[sparklynails23]

This is probably unusual but when I was taking physics in high school, one other student and myself were doing the poorest. During an exam, the kid was sitting next to me and whispered if I knew the formula for whatever problem he was working on. OMG I was scared to answer, but I whispered that I think it's whatever. The teacher saw what was going on and he turned away from us. So we quietly helped each other through the test, him explaining things to me from what he understood and I did the same. We were basically tutoring each other throughout the exam. He really helped me understand a few things and I was able to make clear to him what he didn't understand that I did. Neither of us got a great score, but we both passed. Later on, the teacher said he didn't want to interfere because even though it was an exam, it was a peer to peer teaching/learning experience.

I think that's what happens alot in our program. It's about getting the kid to pass the grade, through whatever means necessary. Even if that means he's copying the "tutor's" answers.

When I asked my 10 year old if he wanted to do it, he asked how much they were going to pay him. The teacher's being paid. I thought that was funny.

 

[palavra]

Exactly. People seem to think that a teacher should be standing in front of a class lecturing for the entire period for learning to occur. That's the last kind of classroom I want my child in. I want her to be in one where she's utilizing all of the learning styles and interacting with her peers.

I agree. Peer tutoring can have numerous advantages for both participants. Any teacher will tell you that one of the best ways to really learn material is to have to teach it. Usually, the peer who is doing the tutoring will gain an in depth knowledge of the subject matter. The student being tutored my feel more at ease to ask questions and take advice from a peer. In a relaxed, non-threatening environment, peer tutoring is a great teaching tool for both participants.